Articles

Spring cleaning can be a dreaded task, especially after a few months of neglecting your outdoor areas and spaces. Now that spring has sprung, take a walk around your yard, garden, and patio areas to assess what you’ll need to get done before summer hits. Get a jump on the project so when the weather…

Now that spring has arrived, it’s time to start gearing up to make sure your pond stays weed and algae free all season long! Pesky weeds and algae can make your pond unsightly, and they can take the fun out of having a water feature as part of your landscape. Lake Restoration has been in…

Have geese made their way back to your lawn? Keep the geese out. Protect your shoreline while allowing easy dock access. Or, protect an entire pond by enclosing the perimeter. Geese prefer easy access to grass and need to drink water about every 30 minutes. Enjoy walking bare foot on your lawn again. The Goose…

When to Dye Your Pond Pond dyes can be applied at any time. We recommend dying your pond in the spring to help reduce weed growth. This will significantly filter the amount of sunlight that gets to the underwater plants and algae, effectively slowing their growth and limiting the amount of regrowth you’ll experience throughout…

The birds are chirping, the snow is finally melting and the temperatures are rising. Your pond is starting to wake up because spring is finally here! Do you need to clean your pond out? The best time for pond management is in the spring time before the water temperature creeps above 55°F. In April the…

It can be a sad time of year when we have to hang up the hat on our summer pond time. But that doesn’t mean that all of your good-time pond-time has to end. It’s easy to turn those hours of summer enjoyment into winter fun with a pond ice rink. If you turned off…

Spirogyra, a.k.a. string algae, is an aquatic plant comprised of cylindrical cells that form long, thin, green filaments that can look like hair floating in the water of your lake, pond, or water feature. It is quite common to find this algae in fresh water and it tends to grow in large, slimy masses. In…

Pond dredging is complicated and expensive. Clearing a small pond can cost several thousand dollars while a larger one could cost you over $10,000. Hard to believe? Here are some things to consider in the cost: rental of the machinery, the necessary expert contractor to operate it, and the planning and costs of weed and…

When you think of the word “seaweed” do many different images come to mind? Do you think of exotic Japanese fare or underwater plants that brush your feet as you swim in a natural body of water? Perhaps you think of the giant goop-covered green guy from the old movies-hard to imagine controlling seaweed in…

Belonging to the category of submerged weeds, Widgeon grass (Ruppia maritima) is also known by its common names ditch-grass and Tassel pondweed. This aquatic plant is also categorized as a seagrass as it has the unique ability of being able to survive in both fresh and saltwater environments (Please note that the widget grass control…

Also known as American or Canadian Waterweed or Pondweed, Elodea is a popular aquarium plant native to North America. Elodea’s dark green oval-shaped leaves grow in whorls of three around a central stem. The flowers of Elodea have three white petals with a waxy coating that make them float, and the flower is the only…

Many people refer to the Water Lily, either the native or introduced varieties, as lily pads but that is simply the emergent part of the plant or part of the plant we can see above the water. The entire plant is much more complicated and includes a sophisticated root system which serves as one of…

Recently Lake Restoration was brought in by the Minnewaska Lake Association (MLA) to treat a serious infestation of Eurasian Watermilfoil. The first aquatic weed treatment covered 15 acres of the nearly 130 of acres that are infested with the invasive plant. These acres exist in 6 pockets across the lake’s total 7,100 acres. The goal…

While acquiring exotic plants is a pleasing pursuit, when these plants leave a contained area and enter into the wild, big problems can arise. In this case, the plant newly causing troubles in the state of Wisconsin is Brazilian Water Milfoil also referred to as Parrotfeather. Recently the plant was found by the Wisconsin Department…

There has been considerable debate about whether Phragmites are native to North America or if they should be considered an invasive species. Until recently they were thought to be a non-native invasive species. Regardless of their classification, experts agree that the dense mats these emergent plants form provide little to no value to wildlife and…

Use our Cattail & Water Lily Control to eliminate your cattail problem and make your body of water useful again! Toward the end of the summer, cattails reach maturity and can take over a pond or lake. Lake Restoration is here to tell you how to get rid of cattails. Do I have cattails? Cattail stems…

Improving the health of your pond or lake can often be a multi-step process. If your goal is killing floating pond weeds you might have to look a little deeper into your pond’s overall health. Simply removing weeds like duckweed, watermeal, water hyacinth or water lettuce is just one part of the process. First make…

As the summer temperature heats up, who doesn’t want to take a dip in the lake and cool off? Swimmer’s itch is an itchy rash caused by certain parasites that normally live in freshwater snails and sometimes can even be found on waterfowl. While you are swimming, these parasites might burrow into your skin, causing…

Algae can appear in different forms and different colors. Is your algae safe, or is it toxic? There is no way to just look at an algae bloom and tell if it is toxic. Green Algae can be picked up when a stick test is done. If you poke a stick into the algae and…

During the dog-days of summer, conditions are just right to cause blue-green algae to grow very quickly, resulting in algal blooms in lakes. These blooms can create a noxious smell, discolored water and can even sometimes kill fish, which die when unable to get enough oxygen from the algae-dominated water. Combine this in some cases…